The desire to have the hair retain a particular shape is widely held. The most common methodology for accomplishing this is the application of a composition to dampened hair, after shampooing and/or conditioning, or to dry, styled hair. These compositions provide temporary setting benefits and they can be removed by water or by shampooing. The materials use in the compositions to provide the setting benefits have generally been resins and have been applied in the form of mousses, gels, lotions or sprays.
Many people desire a high level of style retention, or hold, from a hair spray composition. In typical hair sprays, hold is achieved by the use of resins, such as AMPHOMER.RTM., supplied by National Starch and Chemical Co., and GANTREZ SP 225.RTM., supplied by GAF Corp. These resins generally have a weight average molecular weight of from about 40,000 to about 150,000. When such resins are incorporated into pump and aerosol hair sprays, they provide hold and good sprayability. In general, as hair hold for hair spray compositions is increased, the tactile feel of the hair becomes stiffer and dense, less desirable. It is desirable to provide hair spray products which could provide an improved combination of hair hold and hair feel characteristics.
It has been found that the use of higher weight average molecular weight resins can be beneficial due to the increase in style retention generally expected to be provided by such resins and the general decrease in the amount of resin required for incorporation to achieve good style retention.
Unfortunately, the use of such higher molecular weight resins, such as those having a weight average molecular weight of greater than about 300,000, in aerosol and pump spray formulations has been difficult. Such formulations tend to exhibit poor spray quality. For example, they tend to have spray patterns characterized by wet drippy centers or to have spray characterized by streaming rather than a fine misting of hair spray particles. The difficulties in spraying higher molecular weight resins includes practical concerns, such as clogging, and also poor hair feel and hold. This is particularly a problem for silicone macromer-containing hair setting resins. Such hair setting agents are desirable for use because they can impart improved hair feel while still providing hair hold benefits. Such resins are also typically utilized at relatively high molecular weights relative to conventional, non-silicone macromer-containing resins.
It is an object of this invention to provide hairspray compositions which provide the benefits believed to be obtainable for high molecular weight resins without incurring the performance negatives that result from the difficulties in spraying such compositions.
Hair sprays have been conventionally formulated with high amounts of monohydric alcohol solvents, such as ethanol and isopropanol, and very low amounts of water, since the presence of water adversely affects spray quality. However, it remains desirable to formulate hair spray compositions with reduced levels of volatile organic solvents, such as ethanol and isopropanol. One way to do this, of course, is to increase the levels of water in the formulations, although this affects spray quality and performance.
It has recently been discovered that various silicone macromer-containing polymers, such as silicone macromer grafted copolymers, can be used to make hair spray compositions which combine hair styling (alternately, hair setting) with improved hair feel, e.g., softness relative to conventional hair styling polymers. These silicone macromer-containing polymers can be utilized at a wide variety of molecular weights. The lower molecular weight polymers, such as those from about 50,000 to 300,000 tend to be characterized by poor spray quality relative to conventional hair setting polymers. The higher molecular weight polymers are plagued with sprayability problems as previously discussed. These problems are especially prevalent for reduced volatile organic solvent formulations which contain relatively high levels of water. It is an additional object of this invention, to provide improved reduced volatile organic solvent hair spray products which can provide improved spray quality and performance.